4 blunders Ajay Devgn's Shivaay could have avoided

Let me begin this piece by saying I liked Shivaay for what it is – an out-and-out action-thriller – and you can read that in this take on the film. When I chose to write the review, being fair to the effort Devgn put in, I was clear about the fact that I am seeing it as a superhero, masala, Bollywood movie, made for the masses.

This is the reason I could overlook the many logical flaws in the movie. I thought it was simply hypocritical of people that the Dilwales and Kicks of the world are given a chance, but Shivaay was mercilessly trashed.

Having said that, I also reserve the right to diss the movie and the director where it’s due. I did cringe with disgust and disbelief in many scenes, and I think if actor-director-producer Ajay Devgn had been a bit more careful, he could have won the hearts of all the critics who trashed his effort. Here are four of those instances:

Narcissism

Just because one is at the helm of the movie, and because it’s a home production, Devgn should not have taken the audience for granted by making teenage girls say “OH MY GOD! He is so hot!”

(I understand the fact that Shivaay lives (mostly) in snow-clad mountains of the Himalayas, that too shirtless, and the character was named so for a reason, that metaphorically, Shivaay is Shiva, but that is a bit much to take. You smoke marijuana from a chillum, have got different tattoos to show you are a devotee, but you should have stayed a devotee at best, and not tried to become Shiva himself.)

A young foreigner could fall in love with an adventurous mountaineer, fair. I even agree there are men and women who are impressed by seeing tattoos, I am one of them; but Devgn and Erika Kaar’s characters were too quick with their love, quicker than teenagers in this digital era. The bad icing on this terrible cake of narcissism was Devgn walking towards the camera, in slow-motion, after delivering a sloppy punchline, with the title reading “Directed by Ajay Devgn”.

Girish Karnad was wasted

Girish Karnad, renowned playwright and actor, was cast as a wheelchair-bound man, a former journalist who chose to leave his career for his daughter. For some reason, Devgn - the director, unknowingly I am sure, did not do his job properly when it came to his scenes with Karnad. Almost all of Karnad’s dialogues, and even few gestures, came across as sexual innuendos. For instance, during a stressful situation in the movie, his character says, “kisi ko toh khada hona padtha hai” and the audience burst out laughing.

In another instance, the first time Karnad’s daughter gets a call from our man Shivaay, the father looks lecherously at his daughter - again the audience muttered because it looked like he was checking out his daughter. When casting an actor of Karnad's capacity, Devgn should have ensured he has a prominent part to play.

Action sequences

I loved the action sequences, leaving a couple of chases. To be precise, the one where three men on a helicopter are emptying many rounds of bullets from a machine gun on superman Shivaay and his innocent 8-year-old daughter. The entire sequence was made to look as if the ones taking aim were trained to fire an inch away from their target’s feet. The first bullet, by the way, pierces through Devgn’s body; he gets grievously injured post, even falls off a cliff, but of course, he doesn’t die.

When we see Liam Neeson turning into a menacing killing machine in Taken, and see him slaughtering hundreds of men single-handedly, it somehow looks convincing. Shivaay’s stunts, given his strength and stamina was established in the opening sequence, could have been made more believable.

The climax

Okay, it is no spoiler for a movie like Shivaay if I tell you that all the villains are slayed. The movie should have ended there. But hey, it doesn’t. It goes on for another 10 minutes and that was an unnecessary attempt by the writer and the director to give the audience closure. The audience would have been more satisfied knowing that the villains (again, hundreds of them) are dead and that the cute-and-mute little girl is finally safe.

But on the whole, I stand by Shivaay, and think that people should give it a chance, and some money.